TomC wrote:Oops. And here I (and likely a few others) sat not wanting to mention the obvious.

SJM wrote:What I meant to say is that I think you were unhelpful.

Remember that the lack of gestures and intonation may lead to miscommunications when limited to text-only. I believe that's the case here. Let's move along... thanks.

gor wrote:Seems you connected the live and neutral wires to the same terminal post (on the element). No wonder it MELTED!!

I think Gor has misinterpreted here - At first glance it appears that maybe a white neutral wire is connected to a hot red wire at the terminal, which is not the case. The two light wires (I think may be gray and not white) simply lead to the pilot light, which is wired in a parallel circuit with the element. So they are supposed to be connected there with the red wires. And, you can switch the two gray wires or switch the two red wires and not expect a problem.

We don't have a picture of how Susan had wired her pStat - but even if she mis-connected the live wires to NC and NO, or mis-connected them to NO and COM, the thing would have simply failed to heat. So I think the pStat was probably hooked up correctly. So I agree with Yakster that this doesn't look like anything caused by miswiring at the pStat or element terminals.

Here's a theory: A shorted pilot light (or short in the pilot light circuit) would have caused high current through the gray wires, as well as through the red wires and through the pStat. The small gray wires (small, because they normally don't carry much current) would have fried first.

Yep, my mistake.

Just saw the pic on page 1 of the complete base and original wiring.

Thanks very much for your observations.

It may still be a few days (or maybe longer) before I'm ready to tackle taking her apart and putting her back together again, but I will be sure to check each connection carefully before reassembling and turning her on. Lucky (?) for me there are plenty of other espresso machines in the house to keep ME wired ))

Susan